Archive: undefined/2014

Stirring the Embers Once Again...

As many of you are aware, the legendary Go Seigen passed away on November 30th. I’ve been wracking my brain for a way to properly honor him, but it is still eluding me. To help the process out, I decided that it would be a good start working through my collection of his games again. As I played through his game (above), I started to feel the embers begin to catch flame again.

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Discovering My Master Wu

As most of you know, I’ve spent my fair share of money on this game. Perhaps one of my craziest purchases as a beginner was The Complete Game Records of Go Seigen. Yup. I bought it in September 2010 when I was a mere 15k. And though it may have seemed like the biggest waste of money at the time, I can only smile as I think about how funny the world works sometimes.

Since my first step onto the endless path of go, I have come to learn of many different professionals along with their various styles. And though I’ve come and gone between the various ones and learned from them, none of them ever really stuck with me. It’s not that I don’t admire their strength or am not a fan of them, but there was never one that stuck with me more than another.

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Archive: undefined/2013

Go Seigen, Freedom and an AGA Online Tournament

I recently finished Master Play: The Style of Go Seigen (Review coming soon!), and it has really given me a lot to think about in regards to the way I play go.

For starters, though I’ve been familiar with the concept of professionals ignoring an area when there just aren’t any good moves to play, it wasn’t until I saw Go Seigen’s games till I realized how true this really was. In fact, not only did Go Seigen constantly resist giving in to his opponents; but he would also not hesitate to trade large sections of the board! And what made it even more mind-blowing, was that these areas he would sacrifice were places that were only a few moves away from solid territory!

With that vivid illustration in mind, I couldn’t help but start to notice how stubborn kyu players get about hanging onto stones or territory. It’s as if once they’ve made a decision (i.e., I have declared the right side to be mine!), they will defend it to the end regardless of the fact that they are losing. Another example of this is I’ve noticed is: “Oh look, I’ve spent the time to play three stones here, even though they are now strategically useless, I must save it at all cost even though I will let my opponent walk right into my territory!” Granted, I realize that you must understand strategy and such to be able to walk away from some groups, but this seems to be a general trend that I’ve noticed.

In addition, I think I may have started to internalize the idea of, “If you can’t find a good move, play somewhere else.” In other words, seeing Go Seigen’s game for the first time has really shocked me into realizing how much freedom there really is on the go board. Although a sequence might be considered sente or an area might seem large, it may not actually be from a whole board perspective or from another player’s strategy.

I keep trying to bring this post to a nice closing statement, but it seems that this post is destined for random ramblings. It’s still a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that I’m sorting through, but I guess that’s one of the benefits of having a blog right? A way for me to dump my thoughts and attempt to sort it out in the process. xD

On an entirely different note, in case you haven’t heard about it, the American Go Association (AGA) has taken a big step towards establishing a presence online. Starting in October, there will be an AGA Online Tournament that will be used to help gather information and help them figure out the right way to proceed with online games in the future. And yes, I have already signed up! For more information, check out their post here.

Feeling Like Go Seigen with a Mega-Fail

It’s been awhile since I last posted a kifu on here, and for my first KGS game post for 2013, it is only fitting that I post this one.

To give some background to this game, it’s been about five weeks since my friend Nate and I had the opportunity to play one another. So the anticipation of the game was making me a little bit nervous since I’m quite sure that he’s stronger than his KGS rank. Nonetheless, I was excited at the opportunity to finally get to start the new year properly with a game with him.

This game was a magnificent show of tenacity and fierce fighting spirit from both players (if I may say so). Both of us were unrelenting in trying to stay ahead and find a way to conclude the game in his favor. It took a whopping 1.5 hours, which was more than either of us was probably anticipating; but what an intense and awesome 1.5 hours.

In regards to the blog post title, I felt like Go Seigen at certain points of the game because I was like, “Twenty points? Was that supposed to be mine? No matter! Here! Take it! Let me show you how that will dwarf in comparison to my attack!” On the other hand, this game is a mega-fail for me because of the fact that I lost my tenacity in the final move and failed to realize that the game was actually one move away from victory.

I hope that you enjoy one of my craziest games to date.